Pubdate: Fri, 23 Feb 2001
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190
Fax: (408) 271-3792
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Forum: http://forums.bayarea.com/webx/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: Barbara Feder

UC CENTER TO FUND FOUR MEDICINAL POT STUDIES

Research To Focus On Drug's Effect On Symptoms Of Illnesses

Hoping to inject some science into the acrimonious debate over using 
marijuana in medicine, researchers will examine how the illegal drug 
might help AIDS and multiple sclerosis patients in the first series 
of studies sponsored by a new University of California research 
center.

The Center for Medical Cannabis Research in La Jolla -- a 
collaboration between the UC's San Diego and San Francisco campuses 
- -- announced Thursday it will spend about $841,000 this year on the 
following four new experiments:

In two independent studies, researchers in both San Francisco and San 
Diego will investigate whether smoking marijuana can alleviate a 
condition known as neuropathy, which afflicts AIDS, diabetes and 
other patients with severe tingling and pain in their hands and feet. 
One of these studies will focus on hospitalized patients, the other 
on outpatients.

In San Diego, another researcher will examine how repeated treatment 
with medicinal marijuana affects driving ability of patients with 
HIV-related neuropathy or multiple sclerosis. The patients will be 
tested using a driving simulator.

Another San Diego scientist will study how smoking marijuana might 
ease the uncontrollable muscle spasms and pain that are a feature of 
multiple sclerosis.

Dr. Igor Grant, a UC-San Diego psychiatrist who directs the research 
center, said scientists have encountered daunting barriers to doing 
research on the therapeutic benefits of marijuana, rather than on its 
deleterious effects.

``This is really the first state initiative where a state has said, 
`We are going to look seriously at whether there's any message here, 
any truth to the benefits of marijuana,' '' Grant said. ``The money 
is not a huge amount, but it is enough, we believe, to do high 
quality, state-of-the-art research.

The research proposals must still be vetted by the Food and Drug 
Administration, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the 
Drug Enforcement Agency to make sure they comply with federal law.

The marijuana used in the research will be provided by a 
NIDA-approved farm at the University of Mississippi. Typically, that 
marijuana, which is rolled by machine into identically-sized joints, 
has lower levels of the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) 
than marijuana available on the street, said Dr. Donald Abrams, a 
UC-San Francisco professor of medicine.

The Center for Medical Cannabis Research opened last August with 
money from legislation sponsored by state Sen. John Vasconcellos, 
D-Santa Clara. Vasconcellos has stressed that his bill should not be 
taken as encouragement for the recreational use of marijuana, and the 
center uses the botanical term ``cannabis'' to avoid stigmatizing its 
research.

The controversy over medicinal marijuana has grown since 1996, when 
state voters passed Proposition 215, which allowed people to possess 
and grow marijuana for treatment that is approved by a physician. 
Studies are under way around the country to test the effectiveness of 
marijuana in quelling nausea, easing pain, alleviating glaucoma and 
stimulating appetite to prevent the ``wasting'' that occurs in many 
AIDS patients.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer